Path 2

Scout Niblett Comes to the Silent Barn in October

August 16, 2007

Scout Niblett‘s always come off like a calculatedly fascinating creature, an aloof purveyor of minimalist song structures who performs with the self-contained intensity of an autistic fifth-grader—then again, could just be the blonde wig. Homegirl likes to don this attic-junk hair-piece (see above) that usually looks like she ripped it off the head of a dot-eyed babydoll. But her songs are nothing to sneeze at, miniature universes of quietly plodding soliloquies and pregnant pauses that’re usually gorgeous, sometimes wry, and occasionally chilly. For example, the title song from her most recent Dinosaur Egg is a plea-poem from a party-planning host to a prehistoric embryo: “When will you hatch? Because I got a million people coming on Friday/and they expect to see a dinosaur, not an egg.” (Full-credit, full blame: words were apparently scribbled by this guy.)

Niblett’s got a full-length release coming out on October 9, This Fool Can Die Now, a fourteen-track piece recorded with Steve Albini and featuring Will Oldham (!), both of whose contributions make us pretty excited about the upcoming release.

Niblett recently came through New York on an opening tour with St. Vincent, both alienating her adorers and managing to clear her own merch table in the span of her set. I can attest that she does know how to alienate live—saw her early in the century and she mostly played the drums, screamed intermittently, and generally ignored us—which is why I can’t wait to see her headline a Ridgewood loft apartment playing to a roomful of forgivingly captive kids this fall at the Silent Barn on Saturday, October 27. Niblett hasn’t released many of her fall tour dates, but she’s playing there a few days before Halloween. Bring your wig!